Dog whisperers may soon be out of a job.
Scientific American reports that scientists are “using advanced sensors and artificial intelligence technology to observe and decode how a wide range of species, including plants, already share information with their own communication methods.”
The magazine’s report is supported by data from Karen Bakker, author of How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants.
In Bakker’s book he writes about the future of digital bioacoustics, the field of communicating with animals and plants using AI-like technology.
Bakker believes that interspecies communication is just around the corner if we “combine digital listening—which opens up vast new worlds of nonhuman voice and decoding that voice with artificial intelligence—with deep listening.”
Using AI to talk to computers is mind-bending enough, but using AI to talk to animals is even more revolutionary.
Everything from agriculture to religion can be a big deal.https://t.co/rwz0WdhV1r
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 17, 2023
Scientific American breaks down the science behind interracial communication:
Digital bioacoustics relies on extremely small, portable, lightweight digital recorders, like the miniature microphones that scientists are installing everywhere from the Arctic to the Amazon. You can place these microphones on the backs of turtles or whales. You can place them deep in the sea, [put them] On the highest mountain, attach them to the birds. And they can record sound continuously, 24/7, in remote locations that scientists cannot easily reach, even in the dark and without the disruption that comes with introducing human observers into the ecosystem.
That tool creates a flood of data, and that’s where artificial intelligence comes in — because the same natural language processing algorithms we use in tools like Google Translate can also be used to detect nonhuman communication patterns.
WEF promotes the idea of using AI to talk to animals pic.twitter.com/rITY1ULjfd
— The Triune Times (@TriuneTimes) February 21, 2023
The WEF seemed excited about the idea of interacting with animals using AI and wrote an article about the Earth Species Project, a non-profit developing machine learning ecology to decode animal interactions by detecting patterns for ecological research.
What are the ethical concerns of AI-powered analysis of animal communication? 🤔#AI #morality #Animals #DigitalTransformationhttps://t.co/XOm5RJZuyW
– Cyril Kost #DigitalTransformation (@Cyril Kost) January 12, 2023
